tesol evn es Understanding Language Teachers’ Motivations Towards Research RUI YUAN Hong Kong Institute of Education Hong Kong PEIJIAN SUN AND LIN TE ‘The University of Auckland Auckland, New Zealand doi: 10,1002/tesq.279 Ithough there is a surge of research on language teachers’ motiva- tions to teach (Dérnyei, 2009), scant attention has been paid to their research motivations; that is, their motives and desires to partici- pate and engage in classroom research. However, as Démyei and Ush- ioda (2011) point out, motivations can not only determine why people decide to do something, but can also affect how long they are willing to sustain the activity and how hard they are going to pursue it. There- fore, it is important to investigate language teachers’ research motiva- tions that can guide and influence their research engagement. The past decades have witnessed a teacher research movement in teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL), which emphasizes language teachers’ active participation in classroom research in order to link theories and practice and enhance the quality of language teaching and learning (Borg, 2010, 2013; Nunan & Bailey, 2009). Particularly, action research, as a distinctive type of class- room research (McKay, 2009), has been widely promoted as a powerful impetus for teacher development and teaching reforms (Burns, 2009, 2010). To date, there is a paucity of studies on language teachers’ research motivations, particularly in English as a foreign language (EFL) contexts such as China. Similar to other EFL contexts, language teachers in China are often encouraged by policy makers and school leaders to engage in classroom research (Gao & Chow, 2012); how ever, their research motivations might be affected by a wide range of contextual obstacles, such as large classroom size, lack of school sup- port, and the examination-oriented system (Borg, 2010, 2013). There- fore, informed by the selEdiscrepancy theory (e.g., Higgins, 1987) and the possible selves theory (e.g., Markus & Nurius, 1986), the present 220 TESOL QUARTERLYstudy seeks to examine two language teachers’ research motivations in their action research in China. It is hoped that this study can not only add to our limited knowledge of language teachers’ research motiva- tions and their possible change in relation to teachers’ self-concepts, but it may also generate usefull implications on how to help language teachers (particularly those in EFL contexts) sustain and promote their research motivations in order to maximize the benefits of class- room research for their professional development. Two research ques- tions guide the present study: (1) What motivated the two EFL teachers to engage in action research? and (2) How did their motiva- tions change in the action research process? THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE Motivation refers to “what moyes a person to make certain choices, to engage in action, to expend effort and persist in action” (Dérnyei & Ushioda, 2011, p. 3). As a cognitive-affective construct, motivation is directly related to an individual's self-concept; that is, “the summary of the individual's self-knowledge related to how the person views him/herself” (Dérnyei, 2009, p. 11). According to the self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987), there are three domains of the self: the actual self refers to the attributes individuals are believed to actually possess, the ideal self indicates the attributes individuals would ideally like to possess, and the ought self represents the attributes individuals are expected to possess as a result of certain duties and responsibilities. While the congruence between the different selves can strengthen and enhance motivations, the conflicts (i.e., self-discrepancies) between different selves might induce negative emotions with detrimental impact on motivations (Higgins, 1987). However, by employing selé-regulatory strategies (¢.g., self-reflection) and seeking external support, individuals might be able to reduce the selfdiscrepancies and regain their motivations (Gao & Xu, 2014) Closely related to the self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987) is Mar- kus and Nurius's (1986) possible selves theory, which emphasizes the future-oriented dimension of self-concept and its influence on individ- uals’ motivations (Dérnyei, 2009). From this perspective, the construc- tion of possible selves often involves using imagination and reflection to create a set of hoped-for (i.e., ideal selves that people would like to become) and feared future selves (i.e., selves people are afraid of becoming), which can affect people's motivations and their subse- quent behaviors (Markus & Nurins, 1986). For instance, Kubanyiova's (2009) study shows that, whereas language teachers were motivated to adopt new teaching approaches in order to live up to their hoped-for/ BRIEF REPORTS AND SUMMARIES 22